I'll Walk
by Reigen Doki
Summary: The moments between the storm and rain guardian that show their progression into friendship, and into a true Vongola family. Spoilers for ch. 293-295 of the manga. Rated for language.


**I don't own KHR. Sorry if this is so random. I couldn't return to writing any of my other stories until I got this out of my head. I also don't own Bucky Covington's "I'll Walk" which inspired this. Major spoilers for ch.s 293-295 in the manga. The first part is almost exactly lifted from the manga too, but that's for a reason.**

_Summary: The moments between the storm and rain guardian that show their progression into friendship, and into a true Vongola family._

…..

"Gokudera, it'll be better, if we team up for this, I think." The dark haired teen said with creased brows, staring at the man they had been warned about.

"Shut up." His fiery, silver-haired companion pointed his unusual firearm in his direction, having reached yet another boiling point.

"Gokudera…you…" He looked in concern at the fellow teen who scowled up at him.

"Like I said, I'd never team up with you. Get lost!" The words cut, Gokudera's demeaning scowl still level on him, like he were the opponent there.

The black haired teen's face darkened, "Fine, then!"

"Fine," he repeated his face falling, "Go ahead and do whatever you like."

"I fully intend to. Stay out of my way!" Dismissed, just like that.

"Then I'll walk." As he turned to leave, he could hear their, no, Gokudera's, opponent speak.

"Friends breaking up?" He seemed amused, his eyebrow cocked as he watched the two.

"I'm not running away, so don't worry." The silver-haired teen's glare was on this guy, Gamma was how he introduced himself, "I'll be your opponent."

There were more words. The explosions were still deafening to Yamamoto, even where he had walked away from the fight. Explosion after explosion, more words that he didn't need to worry about because it wasn't _his_ fight.

"This is a mare ring." It was only the last bit of his statement that he had caught, but it was enough to send a spike of worry through him.

He turned his ear to the fight again at the next he heard from Gamma. "Attack."

The lightning cracked and fizzled as it attacked the other teen.

"Gah!" Pain. Gokudera was in pain.

"How is it? The feeling of shot plasma…" Gamma was taunting him. "Can you see the gates of heaven?"

"Guh.." Yamamoto could hear as the other teen hit the floor, the pain too much to keep standing. It didn't have to be that way, and that saddened him, and made him determined.

The man's description of this strange power infuriated him. The smug way he took the other teen down with ease. Couldn't Gokudera see himself being lined up? That next shot would kill him. Yamamoto stepped between, years of agility training coming in handy for the fast move.

"What the hell are you do-" He didn't get to finish the sentence as Yamamoto backhanded him with his wooden sword.

He landed hard, probably hard enough to knock out a tooth. Gamma paused to watch the new development. Gokudera, pained as he was, was pissed enough to show it to the other teen.

"Fuck you." He winced with the pain, "What…stunt are you pulling!"

"I'm here to beat that rotten temper of yours into shape." The rain guardian's face was cold, "The more I think about it, the more angry I get."

…..

The first thing Gokudera remembered when he woke up was the lecture. He wasn't even sure that he had forgotten it. It was consistently there at the back of his mind, posing the question he had always wondered under a new set of lights.

_Did he really think it was just some role-play game?_

No. Not with that speech. He knew. He fucking KNEW. All along he had known that it wasn't a game. It was…what was it? An act to keep the darker side of their lives light hearted? A way of keeping himself sane? A way to keep alive?

He had been serious during their fight. They lost anyway. Working together though…it was something new. He couldn't believe he had come up with that half-baked, shitty plan. Their timing had been perfect, for a slower, weaker opponent. And Yamamoto had trusted him completely when he told him to go for the kill. He had been so happy when he thought it worked. And he had fallen from the surprise attack so swiftly, because he had trusted Gokudera when he said it would work.

But he hadn't been thinking about him. When Gamma said…gunned down…he had lost it. The pain, the small little torture session, was excruciating. And Yamamoto, in as much pain as him, maybe more, tried to save him from Gamma. The moron. There was more blood than he was used to seeing, on both him and Yamamoto. The impact as he was thrown to the ground was what he was just waking up from, undoubtedly.

Tsuna was yelling in concern at Reborn. "Boss…I'm sorry…"

"Gokudera-kun!" He was relieved. He didn't deserved to need to be relieved.

"I'm really sorry, boss…It's all my fault…" If he could taste anything but blood, Gokudera imagined his pride would be pretty sour.

No response. "I…I've been really…scared since we came to this world…" God admitting that hurt, but it was true. "I threw a temper…took it out on Yamamoto, and let something like this…"

"Gokudera-kun.." Damn that thing called pity.

Reborn smiled though. "Yamamoto said the same thing. And he also said many, many good things that he said not to tell Gokudera."

"What!" He felt a weight he hadn't been aware of leave his chest. "Than Yamamoto is…!"

"He's alive! And doing quite well, too!"

He knew his relief was clearly visible when Tsuna smiled at him like that. "CHE. Bah, he's still alive, that bastard."

…..

Yamamoto would be lying if he said he hadn't been a bit suspicious. His time in the future had instilled that in him, but he was always looking for the best in people. Kindness was disarming to people who were used to fighting. Gokudera had taught him that, unintentionally of course.

He hadn't been snooping. He honestly was trying to just be friends with the Shimon family. His curious nature led him to look at the paper that had been wrapped around Kaoru's ring. The crossed out crest was concerning, but if he played it right, they could both shrug it off. The Italian writing concerned him a bit. He wasn't great at the language, even with the lessons he took with Dino on that trip to Italy.

"It couldn't mean "Overthrow Vongola", could it?" Laughed off on his part, it wasn't exactly an accusation.

Flames. He had never seen anything like it. Never felt anything like it either. The pain was incredible. Even with the pain, he could recognize this spelt trouble for his friends. He wasn't even entirely sure what he was scribbling in his blood. The waves of pain were taking his consciousness with them every time they left.

There was so much blood, more than Gokudera had ever seen. More than he certainly wanted to see coating Yamamoto. More than he wanted to see coating the walls and floor of Namamori. He did the first thin he could think of as he rode with the turf head in the ambulance. He called Tsuna. Or rather, he called the Ninth. Tsuna was with him and his phone was obviously on silent.

Tsuna answered the phone to unintelligible mutterings and the first thing Gokudera had sucessfully blurted out was that baseball idiot's name. "Ya-Yamamoto. He-"

"Yamamoto?" Mild confusion filtered over the phone. "What happened to Yamamoto?"

What he said next made his stomach turn. He could only imagine the panic he had just put his boss through. He didn't even stop as the next few numbers flowed from his fingers with numb ease, even when he was racing after the nurses and doctors, keeping an eye on the too pale idiot. He looked pale in comparison to Gokudera, a feat for the tan teen.

He didn't know who called the Shimon family, probably Tsuna's mom when he asked her to send the cow there without any questions. She hadn't sent him. He felt shivers rack his body at the scared, worried face Tsuna wore. At the tears he so desperately wanted to mirror. He hadn't remembered that his second call had been to Yamamoto's father until Sasagawa-kun mentioned it.

Seeing the usually energetic sun guardian so distraught fueled an anger he had never felt before. He wasn't even sure of what he was saying, but Reborn's words had come through loud and clear. This person was after the inheritance ceremony. Damn Yamamoto and his will to do stupid things. Even if they were helpful.

…..

Trust. Trust was going to get Yamamoto killed. It was because he had trusted that scum that he got hurt. Gokudera took another calming breath, because it wouldn't do to get mad again. He remembered the exact moment when they discovered the Shimon family was responsible for, no, the cause of, Yamamoto's pain. He had snapped. It took the Ninth's storm guardian holding him back to keep him from killing the other man.

Killing was far too quick. He wasn't allowed to help interrogate for that reason. Because as he sat on his way to the hospital with the Tenth and his guardians, Gokudera envisioned torture methods that made him sick the more he thought on them. He had never realized what having friends, a family, would do to your cruelty level.

Walking towards Yamamoto's room was hindered though, when the haughty nurse looked their rough group over and shook her head. "Family only."

"They are family." An older voice said softly.

Yamamoto's father gave them a pained, warm look. He knew. Of course he knew. After the future they had seen. It stood to reason Yamamoto would tell him. He was his real family. And his father had accepted it with ease.

The nurse stepped aside uncertainly, but she stepped aside. He didn't know how long they all sat in silence, but no one could think of what to say. His father KNEW they had caught the people who did this. They wouldn't have rested otherwise. A rough cough, met with the thrashing of a violent awakening had everyone's attention. Yamamoto was struggling to take the oxygen mask off.

His father was already calming him. "Th-the guy who-"

"We know." Tsuna said softly, watching as Yamamoto eased back into the bed.

No one was saying it.

"Yamamoto." Gokudera's voice wavered ever so slightly, and everyone looked at _him_ with pity.

When he didn't continue, his father nodded, reassuringly. Gokudera was the right hand man. This was his responsibility. Yamamoto patiently looked up at him, waiting.

"The doctors, well, your legs…"

"I know." Everyone looked at the rain guardian in surprise.

Of course he knew, it was his legs. Gokudera didn't know how much he could feel, but he had been thrashing when he woke up. It would be obvious his legs weren't working. But knowing he may never walk again? The storm guardian gulped, not bothering to hide the pain in his eyes at the magnitude of this development.

"Don't worry." Yamamoto smiled that blinding smile of his, a cavalier tone, "I'll walk."

"CHE." Gokudera turned to hide his smile. "Bastard. Don't know why I even came to check up on you."

…..

It was real this time. ALL of the guardians were there. Gokudera had come to respect Tsuna almost immediately when he met him. Sure, he was normally weak and he wasn't motivated unless his friends were involved, but he was kind. It was only recently the storm guardian had come to respect Yamamoto though.

He was an idiot, by all rights. He had a one track mind and was often too dumb to give up. He was also brave, and strong, and unerringly kind. The rain guardian tilted his head to smile at him, a look of pure pride on his face as he watched Tsuna.

He remembered Tsuna saying what had happened when Yamamoto broke his arm and thought he couldn't play baseball. Looking at that smiling face, he couldn't imagine that kind of darkness. But he had seen first hand how serious he took his 'games'. That seriousness was why he was standing there next to him. And only the guardians knew that the cane he was leaning on hid a sword. A gift from the Ninth until he was capable of walking on his own.

In a few moments the guardians would join Tsuna in front of the other families and take their place as the tenth generation of the Vongola family. Walking up there would be one of the greatest things they ever did, and one of the most dangerous.

"This is really it. This is our moment." Gokudera whispered, barely able to hear it himself.

"It is. Isn't it?" Yamamoto whispered back.

Gokudera nearly jumped at the response. "Things will get harder from now on."

He had the audacity to snicker at that. "I suppose."

"Really." He turned his head slightly. "This will lead to more pain. And heartache. We can loose people for real."

"I know." Yamamoto didn't drop his smile. "I can handle it."

"You have family."

"I know." He reached over subtly, squeezing the other guardian's hand reassuringly before returning his hand to his side.

"I-idiot." Gokudera shook his head. "You don't have to go through with this. You don't have to be a guardian."

"I know. Don't worry." Yamamoto chuckled. "I'll walk."

"Bastard." He smiled as Tsuna gestured for them to join him. "Lets go."

…..

**So Yeah. Just a short thing that wouldn't leave my head. Hope it wasn't too OOC.**


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